The invention relates to a cabinet hinge having a two-piece door part articulated to the supporting wall part and composed of a cup-like outer housing piece which can be fastened in a mating inlet in a cabinet door, and of a separately made insert piece which can be inserted matingly into the outer housing part and snap-fastened therein.
In hinges constructed in this manner, the outer, cup-like housing piece can be driven separately into mating mortises in the door or can be fastened therein in some other manner, while the inner insert piece, joined pivotingly by hinge links to the supporting wall part, can be installed separately. This has the advantage, for example, that the doors can be equipped at the factory with the outer housing piece of the recessed housing, while the insert piece remains uninstalled. The doors can therefore be stacked for shipment in compact packages. At the furniture dealer's or at the purchaser's house, all that need be done is to snap the insert part into the outer housing part mounted in the door. In the known inlet housings of this kind (German Pat. No. 1,559,940; German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2,052,355), the insert piece is locked in the housing piece by resiliently yielding tongues injection molded on the inner wall of the outer housing piece which engage projecting ridges provided on the insert piece at the correct position. It is disadvantageous in this case that, at least for the outer housing part, a plastic material must be selected which assures sufficient elasticity for the operation of the resilient tongue, and this elasticity must not deteriorate with age. The security of the locking action provided by such tongues is furthermore dependent upon the thickness of the tongues which, on account of the limited space available, cannot be made too thick. For hinges subjected to greater stresses, such as, for example, heavy tall cabinet doors, or hinges subjected to shock loads by an over-center mechanism when they are closed, the known construction is therefore less suitable. Similar considerations apply to another known hinge of the kind involved herein (German Offenlegungs schrift No. 2,143,672), in which the fixation of the inner insert piece in the outer housing piece is accomplished by a bayonet type of lock. Neither has it been possible as yet for such two-piece inlet housing hinges to be made as over-center hinges on account of the greater stress to which they are subject and the small amount of space that is available, even though over-center hinges with one-piece recessed housings are today becoming increasingly popular.